he show is a mixture of comedy and tragedy. Audiences will meet a gal (Christine Dixon) who stripped her way through college; a widow (Yvonne Muro) who lost her husband to a drunk driver; a transgendered woman (Ron B), and a character (Anna Sparks) who freaks out over roaches, among other women.

All of them find themselves in chaos, much of it caused by men.

“I think I was born with a female psyche — I seem to understand women,” says Schwabacher, 52, of New Dorp, describing himself as a gay man who has had more female than male friends at times.

He also gains insight from his job as an office manager for Project Hospitality, the Port Richmond-based social service agency. “People tend to talk to me,” says Schwabacher, co-director of this production and a founding member of the Staten Island Playwrights Collective. “It’s sort of like bartending, sitting here.”

Schwabacher shares co-directing duties on “Women Speak Up” with Risa Andersen, a newcomer to Staten Island, who worked with the oldest national one act competition and festival in Dubuque, Iowa from ‘93-’98.